Package and article carrier



Sept. 8, 1942.

c w. WATKINS 2,295,143 PACKAGE AND ARTICLE CARRIER Filed July 27, 1938 i ii 3nvento r: 6. MmrK/M Patented Sept. 8, 1942 MNETED STATES KQTEN'E" @FFIQE PACKAGE AND ARTICLE CARRIER Charles W. Watkins, Kingston, Pa.

Application July 27, 1938, Serial No. 221,4?)2

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a package and article carrier, and more particularly, one which may be attached to the waist of the body of a person by means of a belt.

The principal objects of the invention are:

First. To provide a convenient carrier which may be securely attached to the body of a person so that it shall not flop or intermittently strike against the body when the person is walking, running or assuming unusual positions, such for example, as crawling through difficult underground passages of a mine.

Second. To provide efficient ventilation between the carrier and the body of the person, thereby preventing objectionable sweating of the body.

Third. To provide resilient cushioning means whereby the carrier is spaced apart from a persons body, but at the same time permits a secure fastening to be made between the carrier and the body without being objectionably rigid relative to the body.

Fourth. To be simple, efficient and inexpensive.

The invention is applicable to a great variety of carrying equipment, among which may be named battery bags, mail pockets, safety-equipment corl'tainers, cartridge belts, mechanics tool bags and so on. The carrier, or at least the principal parts thereof, are advantageously made of flexible textile material impregnated with a waterproof or acidproof substance, for example, plastic rubber. Such a material is comparatively inexpensive, is durable and safeguards the clothes of a person using the carrier, against the effects of otherwise injurious substances. An instance is, the acid drip which may escape from storage batteries. Besides, the flexibility of the material, together with the resiliency of properly spaced resilient cushions or pads, allows the carrier to be snugly drawn against a persons body, whereby the carrier is prevented from having any swinging or other substantial motion relatively to the said body.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 represents a plan, partly in section, of the invention as embodied in a battery bag;

Fig. 2, a front elevation thereof;

Fig. 3, a rear elevation, a portion being broken away for convenience;

Fig. 4, a side elevation;

Fig. 5, a fragmentary front view of a person at whose side the battery bag is strapped by means of a belt passing around the waist; this figure is drawn to a reduced scale;

Fig. 6, a plan corresponding to Fig. 5; and,

Fig. '7, a development, in flat form, of sheet material shaped ready to sew, drawn to a scale still further reduced.

Referring to the drawing, Figs. 1 to 6, the battery bag 2% may advantageously comprise a container portion 2| surmounted by a forwardly extending cover consisting in this instance of the bifurcated flaps 24 and 24a, the bifurcation being indicated at 25. The container portion 2| may fit snugly around a battery whose structure is usually rigid in character and whose position in general is indicated at 26, Figs. 1 and 2. The upper part of the bifurcated cover may have the slot 21 in orderto accommodate the conductor cord 28 and its wire guard 29, which usually extend upwardly from the battery 26. The bifurcation 25 extends from the front edge of the cover back into the slot 21, in order that the conductor cord shall pass freely into and out of the slot when the cover is respectively closed or opened. When the battery is in place, the bifurcated cover flaps may be secured by snap fasteners 3|].

The purpose of the slot 22' is to allow the conductor cord to swing to both sides without stressing or distorting either one of the cover flaps when the container portion is strapped to a persons body, as will presently be described. Since the conductor cord usually leads from the battery to an electric lamp (not shown), carried on the hat or cap of a person carrying the battery, there is a constant pulling and swaying of the conductor cord, which soon deteriorates the cover flaps if the clearance space provided by the slotted portion, is not present.

The back of the bag, that is to say, the portion nearest a persons body, is provided with fulcrum members, or briefly, fulcrums, advantageously in the nature of resilient cushioning means, which may consist of a plurality of resilient pads 3| spaced apart from one another in both the vertical and horizontal directions. In the present instance, the pads or fulcrums 3| have inserts 3|a, these being folded into the end portions 32a of a loop member 32, after which the loop member and its folded end portions are sewed to the container portion 2| as indicated by the dotted lines 34, The loop member may bulge slightly to provide a space 35 through which may be drawn a belt 35 indicated in Figs. 5 and 6, and by means of which the battery bag is strapped to a persons body. One or more loop members 32 may be used, for example two, spaced apart from each other as indicated in the drawing.

The pads 3| form bearing members and are in direct contact with the surface against which the battery bag is strapped. The advantage of using a plurality of such bearings spaced apart from one another in two directions, is clearly indicated in Figs. 5 and 6, where it will be seen that when the belt 36 is tightened, the plurality of bearings against the body, tend to lodge in indentations 33, and together with the frictional resistance of the surfaces against each other, hold the bag so securely, that any flopping or other undesirable movement between the bag and the body is avoided. This saves the wearer much discomfort.

The flexibility of the material of which the bag is made, allows suificient distortion in the back of the bag when the belt is stressed, so that the bearing fulcrums adjust themselves so as to conform to the contour of the body, as indicated at 31 in Figs. 5 and 6. Acid-proof thread is to be used in sewing.

It is obvious that in stressing the belt, the fulcrums 3! are displaced as indicated at 31, Fig. 6, this displacement becoming effective through the non-rigid side wall portions in proximity to 4%, to simultaneously stress the front wall of the bag, against the battery, thus preventing it, too, from normally having any substantial movement independently of the body of the wearer.

The simplicity of manufacturing a package and article carrier in accordance with the invention may be noted in the instance of the battery bag, in Fig. '7. Here, the sheet 40 has been shaped into the proper form, with the loop members 32 and the snap parts a and 33b, secured in their respective places. To finish the bag, all

that is necessary is to fold that portion of the sheet which is to the left of the broken line 4!, around this line, and over, until the edge 42 occupies the position indicated by the broken line 42a. Now, by stitching through the doubled thickness along the edges a and 40b (stitching not indicated in Fig. 7), the bag is completed, with the exception that it is inside out. All that remains to be done is to turn it inside in, after which the stitched edge portions 40a and 49b occupy the position indicated in section in Fig. 1, these edge portions being held together by the aforesaid stitching, which in this figure is indicated at 43.

The ventilation feature of the invention is readily understood by noting the space 56 between the carrier 20 and the body in Figs. 5 and 6.

The clearances 56 are the result of having the outwardly extending pads 3| spaced apart from each other above and below the belt 36, so, in conjunction with the loop means 32, to at least partially define a fastening for the belt in which the latter may be stressed to produce a snug contact practically tangent to the body surface. The spaces and 51 may not always be as clearly defined as shown in the drawing, since a persons clothing may bulge inwardly of these spaces, but in any event, such loose bulging or wrinkling between the cushion bearings, provides air pockets or cells through which ventilation takes place.

In all cases, the porous, cellular, and therefore springy nature of sponge rubber, admirably serves the purposes of the invention, but I do not necessarily limit myself to this material.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

1. An article to be carried, comprising a supporting surface; mutually spaced fulcrums secured to said supporting surface and projecting therefrom; and means disposed between the fulcrums for securing a belt which is adapted to encircle the waist of a wearer, said belt-securing means lying closer to the said supporting surface than do the projecting ends of the fulcrums, whereby the fulcrums are pressed against, and said supporting surface is stressed toward, said wearer when the belt is tightened about the waist of said wearer.

2. An article to be carried, comprising a flexible supporting surface; pairs of relatively narrow, elongated fulcrums secured in spaced, side-byside relationship on said supporting surface and. projecting therefrom, the respective fulcrums of said pairs being substantially mutually parallel and mutually spaced; and means disposed between the respective fulcrums for receiving a belt in substantially parallel relationship with the fulcrums, said belt being adapted to encircle the waist of a wearer and to securely attach said article thereto, said belt-securing means lying closer to the said supporting surface than do the projecting ends of the fulcrums, whereby the fulcrums are pressed against, and said supporting surface is stressed toward, said wearer when the belt is tightened about the waist of said wearer.

3. An article to be carried, comprising a flexible supporting surface; loop means secured, near its opposite ends, to said supporting surface for receiving a belt which is adapted to encircle the waist of a wearer; fulcrum elements encircled by opposite ends of said loop means and secured thereby to said supporting surface, said fulcrum elements being relatively narrow and elongated and disposed within said ends of the loop means in substantially mutually parallel relationship and so that they are substantially parallel with said belt when the latter is passed through said loop means, the fulcrum elements projecting outwardly from said supporting surface, the receiving portion of said loop means lying closer to said supporting surface than do the projecting ends of the'fulcrum elements, whereby the fulcrum elements are pressed against, and said supporting surface is stressed toward, said wearer when the belt is tightened about the waist of the wearer.

4. A battery bag having enclosing walls formed of flexible material, and comprising pairs of relatively narrow, elongated fulcrums secured in spaced side-by-side relationship on the outside surface of the back wall of said bag and projecting therefrom, the respective fulcrums of said pairs being substantially mutually parallel and mutually spaced, and being adapted to extend substantially horizontally while the said bag is being carried; and means disposed between the respective fulcrums for receiving a belt in substantially parallel relationship with the fulcrums, said belt being adapted to encircle the waist of a wearer and to securely attach the said bag thereto, said belt-securing means lying closer to the back wall of said bag than do the projecting ends of the fulcrums, whereby the fulcrums are pressed against, and the back wall of said bag is stressed toward, said wearer when the belt is tightened about the waist of said wearer, the side walls of said bag being made expansible so the said back wall of the bag will substantially conform to the contour of the body of the wearer when stressed theretoward.

CHARLES W. WATKINS. 

